


i am not going to give up

by rosestone



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Spoilers, Brunnhilde | Valkyrie (Marvel) Lives, Canon Divergence - Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), Fix-It, Gen, ish
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-21
Updated: 2018-05-21
Packaged: 2019-05-09 18:48:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,933
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14721611
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rosestone/pseuds/rosestone
Summary: When things seem most desperate, Loki and Valkyrie hatch a plan to stop Thanos in his tracks.  All they have to do is find the remaining Infinity Stones before he can.  Simple enough... right?





	i am not going to give up

**Author's Note:**

> A small amount of dialogue was taken verbatim from Infinity War; all else is my own.

Loki backed away from Thanos, sweat rolling down his face.

He'd used up precious energy fending off the ship's weapons when it appeared.  More to hold their own vessel together, and more still to defend the warriors who'd tried to fight back when they were boarded.  There were few skilled fighters in their cohort, but he suspected that even if they'd had the cream of Asgard's forces in place of the commoners and orphans Thor'd chosen to protect, it would still have been a slaughter.

There was a part of him that screamed he ought to submit.  Bow to Thanos, the being he'd served once before, and beg for mercy.  Clemency for those few left alive - his brother among them.  But that was foolish.  Why would Thanos bother?  Why would Thanos do as he asked when he'd already failed so spectacularly?

Another, larger part said he should flee.  There was no hope if he stayed.  He would die like everyone else.  Why not open up one of the dark paths and take himself to some far-distant planet?  It would be easy enough to talk his way into the upper echelons of society; he'd done it on Sakaar, after all.  True, Thanos would come there eventually, but there were so many planets he'd yet to devastate that it could be years.

All he would have to do was abandon Thor.

A sound near his boot made him pause and glance down.  There, tangled among the other fallen whose faces he'd been trying not to look at, was the Valkyrie.  He flinched at the sight of her, lying in a pool of her own blood a few paces away from the children she'd been trying to defend.

Her eyes snapped open.

"Loki!" she said, teeth gritted.  "What are you doing?"

He crouched at her side, shoulders tense despite the spells about him to muffle sounds and hide his movements.  "I'd thought you dead."

"Not yet."  She hissed out a breath as he put a hand to her belly above the wound.  "What's happening?"

"All is lost."  He ducked his head, staring fixedly at the wound.

"What, no tricks?

"Thor and the Hulk together could not defeat Thanos and his servants.  And I cannot resurrect the dead, Valkyrie."

"No."  She was silent for a moment.  "Is it fatal?"

He shrugged sharply.  "Not immediately.  But I'm not much of a healer.  I'll try if you wish, but a clean death might be kinder."

"Since when have I been interested in kindness?"

He pressed his lips together and bent to his task.  The magic was sluggish - whether because of his lack of talent, his lack of training, or sheer exhaustion, he couldn't say - but the muscles beneath his fingers knit nonetheless.

"You know him," she said.

He nodded, still gazing down.

"What's he doing?  Why attack us?"

Loki sighed.  "When I met him, I was half-crazed.  I'd fallen from the Bifrost, through dimensions no-one was ever meant to see, and into the hands of torturers.  I thought he'd rescued me.  He never told me his true purpose - but he did tell me he sought the Infinity Stones, and that he'd recruited me because he knew I'd sought them too.  Not seriously, of course.  It was never more than an academic exercise.  But I'd sought."

She inhaled sharply.  "He has a Stone?"

"Oh, he had one then too.  He gave it to me to use when I went to retrieve the Tesseract from Midgard.  As a sign of trust.  By that time, of course, I would have given him anything.  The Stone I carried, along with the other I sought for him, was a little enough request."

"And now?"

"Two."  He paused, swallowing, and looked up at her.  "I couldn't watch him kill Thor."

She grimaced.  "Well, if he'd had you under his thrall before, I doubt holding out on him would've worked in the long term."

"Yes, well.  It hardly matters, does it?  He'll kill us all in any case."

"Thor told me you could travel the dark paths."

"I hadn't thought you were the type to flee," he said, lip curled.

She pushed herself upright, wincing as the new-healed muscles pulled.  "I thought you were smarter than that.  There are _six_ Infinity Stones."

Loki's brows snapped down.  "You just said you didn't think I could keep the Tesseract away from him.  How is that a good idea?"

"Couldn't you use them against him?"

"Perhaps.  Or perhaps they'd strip the flesh from my bones.  They're immensely powerful, Valkyrie, and few survive an encounter with them.  Now, if I had something like that gauntlet he's wearing, I might manage it, but I doubt he'll be willing to lend it to me."

She shrugged.  "So we find the Stones, take them to Eitri, and have him forge some sort of weapon with them.  I'm sure he could do a better job than whoever made that one."  She paused, eyes fixed on him.  "Thanos must know where the other Stones are hidden, or he'd still be manipulating others to do his dirty work.  Whatever his aim is, he means to achieve it soon.  So we have to be faster."

"Even if it means risking my hands on the Stones?"

"Even then."  She picked up her sword and wiped it clean.  "If you need it, I'll give you a clean death.  My word on it."

He let out a long breath.  "Thank you."

The dark paths weren't meant to be opened in the endless depths of space.  They wended their way between planets, not spaceships, a desperate man's version of the Bifrost.  But they came when he called - as sluggishly as the healing magic had, true, but they came.  A doorway flowered into being beside them, sheer black, only the barest hint of bluish light suggesting at somewhere they might walk.

Valkyrie glanced back towards the centre of the ship.  "Thor?"

"They had him surrounded, last I saw.  I don't believe I could free him without being caught."

She nodded, swallowing.  "Very well, then.  We should go."

"One last thing."  He bowed his head and called forth the last scraps of his magic.  A second copy of himself swirled into being, solidifying moment by moment as he poured yet more into it.  His usual battle constructs could afford to merely appear real, or to have blades that cut but bodies of mist.  This had to be more.

Valkyrie pushed the construct's shoulder, frowning.  "Why waste power?  You're clearly exhausted."

"I'm not -"  He jerked his head up, scowling, and swayed in place.  "Well.  Perhaps I am.  But this is important."

"Vital," the copy agreed.  It nodded at him and turned towards the centre of the ship.

"Thanos knows me, and he knows I'm still alive.  He'll suspect a trick if he doesn't see me again.  Why give him that advantage?"

"Ah."  She stared after it a moment more.  "We should go."

Loki took her arm.  "Do _not_ lose contact with me.  The dark paths are not kind - especially not to those without magic of their own.  You might survive, but why take unnecessary risks?"

"I take it I won't need my sword, then?"

He shook his head, and she sheathed it.  She resettled his hand on her arm, covering it with one of her own, and shook her head firmly when he opened his mouth to object.

"You said we should stay together," she said, raising her brows.

He pressed his lips together.  Now was not the time for pride.  Now was the time for taking whatever help he needed to stay upright until they managed to get away from here.

"Come on, then."

Somewhere behind him, he heard Thor bellowing a protest.

He turned and led her away.

 

There was light glaring against his eyelids.

Loki lay still for one long moment, mind scrambling.  This wasn't the ship - the air was too fresh, the surface he lay on too rough -

"You're awake?"

He let out a long breath.  They'd taken the dark paths.  Of course.  "Valkyrie.  Where are we?"

"How should I know?  It's no planet I've ever visited before, but that doesn't narrow it down far."

He sat up, wrinkling his nose at the barren landscape around them.  "Why let me sleep?"

"You were barely conscious even before we left," she said, shrugging.  "I don't know much about magic, but I've heard overusing it can have terrible effects.  I didn't want to be stuck here if waking killed you."

"I would have been fine," he said, scowling.

"If you say so.  Can you travel?"

He glared at her.

She smirked at him.  "Where to, then?  You're the expert on the Infinity Stones."

He stood, gingerly stretching his cramped legs, and began to pace.  "There are six in total -"

"Anyone knows that."

"There are six," he said loudly, "Infinity Stones.  At least one is on Midgard - I don't believe Thor realised the staff Thanos gave me contained one, because he didn't bring it back to Asgard with the Tesseract, which Thanos now holds.  The Aether was, the last I knew, in the hands of the Collector."

The Valkyrie's brows snapped down.  "The Collector?  Is he the one who lives on Knowhere?"

"I... believe so.  Why?"

"Some interesting stories about him made their way out to Sakaar a few years ago - old news by the time you got there, of course.  He got his hands on some kind of weapon, but someone named Ronan came after him for it.  Stole it and tried to use it to destroy Xandar.  I didn't think much of it at the time, but now..."

Loki shook his head.  "It couldn't have been the Aether."

"Oh, you're that sure?"

"We sent it there because his security is unparalleled.  But he struck me as the sort of man who'd be too tempted by power, so I made sure to enchant its container.  Nobody can open it except for me.  And if someone did manage to force it open, I'd know."

"Ah."  She caressed the hilt of her sword absentmindedly.  "But it could've been another Stone."

"Very possibly.  Do you know what happened to this Ronan?"

She shrugged.  "Defeated.  I haven't heard what happened to the weapon, but the Nova Corps don't strike me as the sort to leave something that dangerous lying around."

"Then, presuming that this weapon is one of the two Infinity Stones I never located, only two remain.  I never found any hints to direct me to the Time Stone, so we'll have no luck seeking that one.  However, that may well mean that Thanos doesn't know where it is either."

"And the other?"

His shoulders tensed.  "The Soul Stone."

"You know where it is?  If so, we can capture three - perhaps even four, if the Stone Thanos had already was the Time Stone."

"I found it, yes.  It was... well hidden.  It had a guardian.  He told me that attempting to acquire the Stone would have a terrible cost."

"So..."

"I am a scholar, Valkyrie."  He smiled, thin-lipped.  "Historically speaking, when a would-be hero attempts to acquire some powerful treasure with which to achieve their ends and chooses to accept a terrible cost, it is always far more than they would have been willing to pay.  I decided it was worth waiting until I was truly desperate."

She raised a brow.  "So, what do you call this?"

"I know."  His smile slipped.  "I'll admit, I'd always hoped never to have to find out what that price would be."

"Well, if it's that difficult to find and acquire, I think we can leave it to last," she said, shrugging.  "Where to first?  Midgard's not very advanced, is it?"

"More than you'd expect, and it's well-defended to boot.  And there are some... local political difficulties that might make convincing the current holder of the Stone to give it up a challenge.  No, I think we should go to Xandar."

"They're not fond of Asgardians over there, but they'll understand the urgency, I think."

"In that case..."  Loki called the paths into being.  It was almost astounding how much easier it was here.  "Shall we go?"

 

Loki had never visited Xandar before.  Asgard didn't trade with planets outside the Nine Realms or do much in the way of diplomacy, so he had no frame of reference for what it ought to look like.

He was fairly sure, however, that the devastation before him wasn't standard.

The Valkyrie cursed under her breath as they stared out from the rooftop they'd landed on.  The eerily silent city in front of them was largely intact, a militaristic-looking building in the distance the spectacular exception.  It was the people who'd borne the brunt of Thanos's wrath.  Bodies lay scattered on every road and footpath.  The air stank like a charnelhouse.

"I see movement," she said, fingers clenching around the hilt of her sword.  "Is Thanos still here?  Can you tell?"

He shook his head.  "I've held an Infinity Stone.  If there was one within the bounds of this city, I'd feel it.  No, he's long gone."

She nodded sharply.  "Then let's go."  She strode to the edge of the roof and leapt down.

Loki followed, frowning.  "We should leave.  There's nothing here for us."

"Information," she countered.  "He wouldn't bother to leave his followers here, so there must be survivors.  And he can't be travelling as fast as we are, not in a ship, so a few minutes' delay won't hurt."

" _Fine_."

The survivors were clustered to one side of a large square in front of the destroyed building.  They flinched back when the Valkyrie strode around the corner, Loki trailing behind, but seemed to take heart when she came to a halt at the sight of what filled the other side of the square: bodies tumbled every which way, in such great number that they must have been brought to the square for that purpose.

She shook her head sharply, pulling her gaze away.  "I'm going to go talk to them."

Loki didn't bother following her to the Xandarians.  Instead he walked slowly to the far end of the square, where a grand pair of gates had been blasted apart.  This close to the building on the other side, he could feel the remnants of power lingering in the air.  Yes, there had been an Infinity Stone here.

"Loki," the Valkyrie said.  He failed to hide his flinch as he turned to face her; he'd been more lost in thought than he'd realised, apparently.

"You're finished?"

She nodded, expression grim.  "He'd only planned to kill half of them, apparently.  But they refused to give up the weapon he was looking for, so they kept slaughtering."

"Nothing we can do about it now."

She sent him a narrow-eyed look, but didn't comment.  "To Knowhere, then?"

"It's simpler than either of the other two options.  Though I don't look forward to convincing the Collector he should return the Aether.  It might be faster to distract him and steal it, frankly."

"If that's what it takes," she said, shrugging.

The journey from Xandar to Knowhere wasn't long - perhaps ten minutes picking their way through the near-pitch blackness, ignoring the occasional barely-audible whispers or strange sensations.  Loki had stopped paying them any mind years ago, but this on this trip they seemed to be unusually prominent.  Perhaps it was the necessity of bringing the Valkyrie with him; he couldn't distract himself so easily when he had to protect her, after all.  Or perhaps it was simply the constant, nagging knowledge that this might be the end of all things.

But whatever the reason, there was a strange coldness inside his chest.  It ached in a way that seemed almost familiar.  Like the nagging of a protective enchantment, perhaps, but attenuated strangely -

It came to a sudden crescendo, pain spiking behind his eyes and driving him to his knees, and he gasped.

"Loki," the Valkyrie said, low-voiced.  "What -"

He forced his eyes open.  She was bending over him, concern on her face.  Behind her, the edge of the path seemed to warp, reaching hungrily towards them.

"Run," he rasped, throat tight.

She cast one glance around them, eyes widening, and hauled him to his feet.  The path twisted further, tightening around them; Loki thrust a hand out, holding the space before them open by sheer force of will.  After one hesitating moment, the Valkyrie picked him up and began to sprint.

The path tightened further still, doing its best to keep them, but there was light ahead.  Loki gritted his teeth and forced it back, and for a moment thought they'd make it out unscathed.  Then the space before them shrank abruptly.  The Valkyrie, a mere step away from the narrowing gap, hissed between her teeth and dived.  Loki yelped as he landed on his shoulder, but didn't complain.  Better a small pain on Knowhere than a slow death between realms.

"What," the Valkyrie demanded, heaving for breath, "was that?"

"The protective spells on the Aether breaking."  He rolled over and pushed himself to his feet, wincing.  "It wouldn't have been a problem ordinarily, but magic sometimes acts strangely in the dark paths."

She eyed the room they'd landed in, a cavernous space filled with items in glass cases that might have been rubbish but were nonetheless well tended to.  "It looks better than I would have expected, if he's here."

"We're in the Collector's museum.  He doesn't let many people in here, and Thanos's followers don't seem terribly interested in property damage."  The Aether's aura hung heavy in the air - but it would, here.  Underneath that - "Yes, he's here."

Voices echoed through the nearby doorway, too distant to hear what they said.  Her brows snapped down.  "We should go."

"Not wanting to get information this time?"  He turned to open another portal.  It resisted, as if he were trying to swing a sword through honey.

"It would be useful to know if he had the Stone from Midgard, but not worth the risk.  Not if he's already broken through your protections."  She glanced at him.  "Is something wrong?"

He bared his teeth at her.  "I'll be fine.  Give me a moment, if you please."

She rolled her eyes and crept to the doorway, hand tight on the hilt of her sword.  Loki closed his eyes and focused.  Another pulse of magic was almost enough to force it open, but not quite; at this rate, he'd exhaust himself again, and they'd all be damned.  Could it be some protection bought by the Collector, a way of holding would-be thieves in place until he could send a minion to retrieve them?  Or perhaps the natural outcome of losing focus on the paths, some lingering hostility on the part of whatever near-sentience inhabited them -

Magic rippled through him, and his eyes jolted open.  

There was a crater in the floor by his boot.  The scent of smoke on the air.  The glass cases around him were shattered, their contents spilled on the floor.

The dark paths snapped open before him, wide-mawed from the sheer amount of magic he'd forced into the spell.

He turned to call the Valkyrie, and saw her behind him, wide-eyed.  She grabbed his arm and hauled him bodily into the path.

"Does this close behind us?" she whispered.

"If I allow it to, yes."  He clenched a fist and the entrance snapped shut.  Thank the stars, this iteration of the dark paths didn't seem to be aware of his loss of concentration the last time he'd travelled; it was entirely normal.

She relaxed a little, but continued to stride faster than she had before.  "Good."

"He saw you?"

"I don't know.  He was distracted, I think, but there was more wall in front of me before... whatever that was."

"If I'd done it, it would have been an illusion - though I'd never bother doing one on that scale, it's a waste of power.  In his hands... he changed reality itself, I think.  To the point where the paths wouldn't come, because they were trying to open into two places at once."

She hissed between her teeth.  "I'd been hoping this would go better."

"So had I."  They walked in silence for a few moments.  "Did you see how many Stones he had?"

"Three.  One blue, one orange, one dark red."

Loki sighed.  "He hasn't claimed any more since we saw him, then."

"Good."  She glanced at him.  "How far are we going this time?"

"Longer than last time.  I don't recall the exact distance."

"Not Midgard?"

"No.  Vormir.  It's on the very edge of inhabited space."  He paused, eyeing her.  "In the interest of full disclosure, I feel I should tell you about the... political difficulties I mentioned earlier."

She snorted.  "What did you do, insult a diplomat while drunk?  From what I heard on the ship, I'd have thought that was more something Thor would have done when he was younger, not you."

He sighed.  "No.  I attempted to overtake the planet."

"You... really?  Seriously, Loki."

"Oh, I really did."  He stared into the blackness ahead.  "In my defense, this was after I'd fallen into Thanos's hands.  I wasn't quite in my right mind at the time."

"Well.  I can see how that would make things difficult."

"Precisely."

"I could negotiate for it."

"Except that they don't know who you are or have any reason to trust you.  I suspect the only visitor from the other realms they've had who was there as a friend was..."

"Thor," she said, voice soft.

"Yes."  He hunched his shoulders.  "They might believe you if you said you'd come on his behalf, but they might not, and either way my presence would cause significant problems."

"And either way, he already has three Stones and we don't know where one of them is, so we'll have a hard time beating him."

"I think - I hope - he doesn't have any formal training in magic.  That may be the key difference between us.  If I can use two Stones more skilfully than he can use three..."

"Hopefully you can fight it out somewhere uninhabited.  All the sorcerers' battles I've ever seen were messy at best."

"I doubt he'll give us that kind of consideration."

"No."  She tapped her fingers on the pommel of her sword.  "You said there were warriors on Midgard.  Truth, or an excuse to put off visiting?"

"Truth.  They're rather primitive compared to Asgard, but a few of them have risen above their mortality to become fighters who would have been welcome in its halls, in my opinion."

"Then perhaps we should go to Eitri next, and make Midgard the site of the battle."

He glanced at her, startled.  "It's hardly uninhabited."

"No, but we'll need warriors.  Thanos has his own army, and it'll be much easier for you to fight him if he's distracted.  I can't do that entirely on my own."

"And you think we should try to convince my enemies to help us?"

"Who else are we going to ask?"

Loki pressed his lips together, looking away from her.

"He'll be going there in any case," she said.  "If we can convince them to give us the Stone and a contingent of warriors to take to a planet of our choosing, then we'll do that.  But if not - well, we know where he'll be."

"Unless he's going there now.  He doesn't have to convince them to give it up, after all."

She shook her head decisively.  "You didn't see what he was doing.  He was with some people I don't think were his followers, and he wasn't killing them - or not only that, anyway.  They were talking.  Whoever it was, he knew them, and he had things on his mind other than running straight off for the next Stone."

"Perhaps."

"But do you agree we should go to Eitri next?"

"It'll be faster than arguing with Midgardians, at the very least."

"Good."  She rolled her shoulders.  "Is there any way to tell how much further it is, or must we just keep walking until we find an exit?"

"I can't tell precisely, but..."  He dipped into his magic, trying his best to be conservative with it, and reached out to the fabric of the paths.  They were like a wire held between two people, vibrating ever so gently.  The end that had been Knowhere seemed very distant; the other...  "Quite close, I think.  We'll likely come out some distance from the actual location of the Stone - it doesn't seem to be possible to approach it any way but on foot."

"We can run."  She glanced at him, brows creasing.  "You can run, can't you?"

"I haven't exhausted myself again, no."

She nodded sharply, looking ahead.

He smelled Vormir before he saw it; the air was dry and dusty, almost but not quite like a well-kept library.  The light ahead of them was dim.  When they stepped out onto the sands, the Valkyrie hunched her shoulders, clearly unsettled.

"I suspect this would happen to any world that bore the Soul Stone for long," Loki said.  The still air seemed to eat his voice, leaving it thin and quiet.  "It's peculiarly lifeless for a planet with an otherwise friendly atmosphere."

"The less time we can spend here, the better," she muttered.  "Which way?"

He gestured to a mountain in the distance, perhaps a half-hour's walk away.  It was the only landmark in the otherwise featureless dunes - which was what had first drawn him to it, back when he'd read about the planet's barrenness and theorised it might be the result of long-term exposure to an Infinity Stone.  Now that he'd held two Stones, however briefly, he could feel the Soul Stone's presence there.  It was like a sound barely beyond his ears' range, or an infinitesimal vibration against his skin.  Hardly noticeable until you knew it was there, and then impossible to ignore.

Despite her words earlier, she didn't run.  Loki was glad for it; Vormir's sands shifted under his feet, sapping the energy from his stride.  It wouldn't have been impossible to run, not if the need were urgent enough, but it would have been pointlessly exhausting.

"Will we be able to use your dark paths from the mountain, or will we have to make this trek twice?"  She glanced aside at him, brows drawn down.

Loki frowned.  "I'm not sure.  I found the entire journey - planet, guardian and Stone together - unsettling enough that I didn't even try to leave from there.  Though, having had more experience now with the Stones, I wonder if it wasn't some effect of the Soul Stone, putting me off balance for long enough that walking seemed like a better choice than risking the paths."

"Better not to try, perhaps."

"I suppose we'll see how desperate we are when we get there."

They walked in silence for some time.  The dunes were maddeningly similar; if the mountain hadn't been nearing steadily, Loki might have thought they weren't moving at all.  But it was certainly getting closer.  They'd come more than half the distance now, surely.  Soon enough they'd be at the foot, ascending the surprisingly short path to meet the guardian.  He hadn't gone further than that last time, not seeing the point when he had no plan to pay the Stone's cost, and he found himself dwelling on what the Stone's home might be.  Not some grand hall, surely, not in such a bleak landscape.  Perhaps a cave?  They'd descend again, into some cold maw.  See the Stone ahead, glowing softly in the blackness, and - what?

What cost power?

Would it be something he could bear to lose?

He thought about Thor, the last living man on a failing ship, going to his death believing his brother'd gone first, and shuddered.  Did he truly have a right to refuse, no matter what the cost was?

"Loki," the Valkyrie hissed.

He flinched.  "What?"

"I thought I saw movement ahead."

"There's a guardian on the mountain -"

"No.  Closer than that."

He flicked his fingers, making them as unnoticeable and unimportant as the endless sands around them.  It wouldn't last against the concentrated power of an Infinity Stone, but he didn't need it to; he just needed Thanos, if that was who it was, not to realise there was anybody else on Vormir.

She glanced down at herself, frowning.  "That'll -"

"Well, it'd be useless if we stopped noticing one another, wouldn't it?"

She tilted her head in agreement and stepped softly up the side of the dune.

"Do you see anything?"

"No.  But they might be on the other side of a dune, or behind some of the rocks.  You didn't feel the Stones?"

He shook his head.  "This close, all I can feel is the Soul Stone."

She grimaced.  "I suppose all we can do is try to hurry, then."

The distance to the mountain's edge was, thankfully, short.  The clatter of their feet against the stones was as strangely muted as their voices had been - not that it would have mattered if it hadn't been, since Loki wasn't about to be caught thanks to some amateurish mistake like forgetting to muffle the sounds they made - but it clearly unsettled the Valkyrie.  Perhaps she'd been hoping to use it to judge Thanos's passage.  Or perhaps, even without the aid of magic, she was starting to feel the aura of the Soul Stone.  This close, it was much more noticeable.  The pressure one felt against one's skin when diving too deep.  Or a hand against one's throat, tightening slowly and without mercy.

"There," the Valkyrie said, low-voiced.  

Several turns of the path ahead was a familiar head.  Thanos moved out of sight again a moment later, intent on his quest.

"Do you suppose we could pass him?"

"The path's very narrow," Loki said, frowning.  "And as inimical as the atmosphere here feels, I doubt I could levitate us around him."

"Maybe it widens further ahead."

They sped up further still.  It only took a minute to catch up to Thanos, who didn't seem to be concerned with the time he was taking to reach the Stone.  The Valkyrie narrowed her eyes at the sight of his companion, a green-skinned woman.

"She was with him on Knowhere," she said.  "But they seemed less friendly then - from where I was standing, she looked like a hostage.  Do you think he could've done to her what he did to you?"

"Not in this amount of time.  Was it only the two of them, or were there others?"

"A few.  You think it was a trick?"

He shrugged.  "It might have been.  Perhaps she was a plant in the Collector's security team, and now that he's claimed that Stone, she's come to help him get this one."

They paused, hidden by one of the jagged spires of rock that lined the path, as the two spoke to the guardian.

"Gamora," the Valklyrie murmured.  "She couldn't be his natural-born daughter - I've seen species with variations in the colour of their skin, or size, but not both."

Loki flinched.  "Not that it would matter."

She frowned at him, but didn't comment.  "Was this what the guardian said to you the last time you were here?"

"Essentially.  He didn't feel the need to warn me I'd regret it, since I wasn't foolish enough to think I should pay whatever price the Stone demanded for no reason other than curiosity."

The guardian led them away from the peak of the mountain, towards a sheer drop framed by starkly carved columns.  The plateau before it was near-empty, nowhere they could hide, and Loki put an arm out to stop her as she made to step away from the path.

"I suspect long exposure to the Stone has warped the guardian as much as it's changed this planet," he said softly.  "My spells may fool him, but they might not, and we don't know enough about him to know if he'd tell Thanos if he knew we were here or keep his silence."

She grimaced but stopped, flexing her fingers near her sword.  Loki used the barest trickle of magic to guide the trio's conversation his direction; it was a feeble effort, as far as eavesdropping went, but using large amounts of magic that near Thanos seemed a recipe for disaster.

"Can you hear what they're saying?"

"Pointless babble.  No, really - unless you want a history lesson - ah."  He hushed her with a gesture, not wanting to miss the guardian's words.

"To ensure that whoever possesses it understands its power, the Stone demands a sacrifice."

"What?"

"In order to take the Stone, you must lose that which you love.  A soul for a Soul."

He sat back on his heels as Gamora began to laugh, numb.  They'd come all this way for... nothing.

Neither of them could have claimed the Stone in the first place.

"Loki!" the Valkyrie hissed.  "What did he say?"

He played the guardian's words back with a snap of his fingers.  She met his eyes, pale-cheeked, but didn't seem upset.

"Perhaps it's not so bad that Thanos got here first."

He raised his brows.  "He's on his way to getting another Stone.  How is that _not so bad_?"

"Does he strike you as the sort of man who loves people?"

Loki paused.  "Ah.  Perhaps not.  Though he might have fooled himself into thinking so, considering how he was talking about the great mercy his followers were doing."

"Exactly.  He's every bit as out of luck as we are.  Not that he can't still cause trouble with the Stones he's got, but I assume they'd be more powerful if he had all of them?"

"Enormously so."

"Well, there we go, then.  He can't finish his gauntlet, so we've got plenty of time to find the other Stones, or come up with some other way of killing him.  This is going to make everything so much easier."

A flicker of movement caught his attention, and he turned back towards Thanos.  Gamora's hands were clasped against her belly; she opened them, releasing... bubbles?

The Valkyrie drew a sharp breath.  "Loki."

And then Thanos seized Gamora, and he realised.

She grabbed Loki's arm, short nails digging in.  " _Stop_ him!"

"I can't!"  He shook her off.  "And he couldn't love -"

"His daughter?  It doesn't matter who she is to him if he kills her and gets the Stone!"

"I can't just grab her with magic near the Stone."

She glared at him.  "Then cover me!"

"What do - what are you _doing_ -"

She was sprinting for the edge of the plateau, dropping her sword with a clatter.  At the last moment she planted her foot on an outcrop and pushed off, sending herself flying at an angle.  Loki cursed and reached out an arm, preparing to pull her back from a potentially fatal fall -

No.  A potentially fatal fall for an Asgardian.  A _certainly_ fatal fall for the woman she was aiming for.

One flick of his fingers gave her the extra push she needed to reach Gamora; another wrapped her in protective magic, hopefully weak enough not to draw Thanos's attention.  Gritting his teeth, he drew together the rest of his energy to create an illusory version of the woman tumbling to her doom.  It wouldn't stand up to close inspection, since he'd only seen her features from a distance, but with any luck Thanos wouldn't realise what had happened before they had a chance to escape.

Far below, the illusion struck the ground, slumped in apparent death.  The Valkyrie raised an arm, pointing to the far side of the crater.  She scooped Gamora up and began to run, and Loki followed along the path, mind racing.  How long would it take Thanos to realise he'd been tricked?  Would he have to go to wherever the Stone was stored, only to discover it was still barred to him, or would the guardian know instantly?  Might he suspect a failing in his love for her?  Or that she was dying, rather than dead?

He leaped down to a lower section of path, grunting as the impact rang through his legs.  The Valkyrie was making better time than he, even burdened by a passenger, but that was fine; she'd have a harder time hiding from Thanos once he realised what was going on, since she was the one carrying the woman he'd be searching for.  All he had to do was stay close to them until the Stone's prohibition lifted so they could flee.  One such as Thanos, who'd spent his life murdering, surely couldn't have many who qualified for this sort of sacrifice.  What did it matter if they couldn't get the Stone as long as he couldn't either?

Power pulsed across his skin, and the path was suddenly lit as if by a noonday sun.  He turned, stomach dropping.

The Soul Stone.

He stumbled to the edge of the path.  Could she - but no, he could see the two of them below, staring upwards at the light.  Gamora was pushing her hair out of her face as she leaned against the Valkyrie.  Not dead.

He sank into a crouch, staring at nothing.  The Stones were magic, and had the same rules.  Oh, they might _say_ you had to sacrifice a soul for power, but that didn't ever mean you really did.  The cost was _willingness_ to do so.  Being so desperate for power that you would take the life of one you loved, cold-blooded and in full understanding of your actions, and then living with that self-knowledge.  By that criterion, he might have been able to claim the Stone after all, if only they'd gotten here earlier.

The light winked out, and with it the prickling sense of an active Infinity Stone.

Thanos was gone.

 

Gamora and the Valkyrie waited for him by the bottom of the mountain.  Whatever Gamora's motivations had been earlier, they seemed to have decided it wasn't worth fighting.

"How did he get the Stone?" the Valkyrie demanded, brows drawn down.

"Magic."

" _Loki_ -"

"Does it really matter?"  He slumped against a convenient rock.  "He has four Infinity Stones, and apparently the ability to go wherever he wants at will - the Space Stone's doing, I suppose.  He's probably overwhelmed the Midgardians by now.  He may even know where the last Stone is.  We've lost, Valkyrie."

"Or he doesn't know where the last two are, and we have plenty of time to make it to Midgard at least.  Now the Stone's gone you should be able to summon the dark paths from here, so we can go right now.  And Gamora's promised to help us - she knows plenty about Thanos's plans and tactics."

He glanced up at her, lip curling.  "How optimistic.  Why, I hardly think you'd recognise yourself, if I brought that drunken slave-taker from Sakaar before you now.  It's baffling, considering how you reacted the last time you lost -"

She slammed him against the rock, hand against the base of his throat.  "Shut _up_ , you -"  She let out a shuddering breath.  "Is this why we let Thor die?  So we could _fail_ _?_ "

He flinched.

"I don't know about you," she said, voice nearly a whisper, "but I am not going to give up."

Loki opened his mouth, and -

Fire on his skin, a thousand screaming voices, power shouting across the universe, something wrong and twisted _no_ -

He opened his eyes.  The Valkyrie was taller - no, he'd fallen.  She was rubbing her hand and staring at him, eyes wide.

"What _was_ that?"

He turned his head painfully, looking at Gamora.  "What was he going to do with the Stones?"

"Kill half the people in the universe."  She was paling as she spoke.  "To save the rest from overpopulation."

"Then he's succeeded."  He pushed himself upright, knees aching where they'd struck.  "You were saying?"

"The Infinity Stones are powerful enough to do that," the Valkyrie said, head coming up.

"Of _course_ they are, you -"

"Then they could undo it."

He paused, mouth agape.  "Are you - of course you're serious.  How, in Buri's name, do you propose to get the gauntlet off Thanos?"

She shrugged.  "Surely he wouldn't expect to be attacked now.  And not by three dead people."

"Or more," Gamora put in.  "My shipmates would help - and my sister, if we can find her.  They all hate Thanos as much as I do."

"We could still recruit the Midgardians - I doubt they're fond of him, right now.  And it'll be easy enough to track him down."

Loki rubbed his face.  "I'd like to hear the reasoning behind that train of thought, Valkyrie."

"Are you telling me you couldn't feel whether the collected Infinity Stones were present as soon as you stepped onto a planet, as powerful as they are?"

He opened his mouth to object, winced, and closed it again.

"I thought so."

"This is possibly the worst plan I've ever heard.  And believe me, you've got competition."

She raised a brow.  "Are you telling me you aren't in?"

"As you pointed out," he said, meeting her eyes, "he does owe us a certain measure of revenge."

"There's the Loki I know."

He stretched his arms out, fingers interlinked.  "Do either of you have an idea for where we should start, or shall I just open a path at random?"

"His home base, and I know a few planets he's fond of to try after that," Gamora said.  "If that doesn't work, I know a place that sells extremely thorough starmaps."

"Well, then," the Valkyrie said, smiling grimly.  "Let's go."

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by my thought immediately after Loki's death: "Hey, he's probably dead for real, but you know what'd be interesting? If he faked it again," and at Gamora's death: "This is where Loki would show up and grab her in an attempt to spike Thanos's attempt at the Soul Stone, if he survived. Not that it'd work..." But the fic didn't really come together (and start demanding to be written) until I realised it'd be way better with Valkyrie too.
> 
> On another note: I cannot tell you how genuinely tempted I was to write an AU where they showed up first and the Stone went "hey, left your brother to die? Good enough for government work", much to Thanos's displeasure when he got up. Not that it would've worked out all that well for them...


End file.
